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GADSDEN, Alabama -- Medical professionals from as far away as Hawaii are expected this week at Gadsden State Community College for a conference on the growing field of medical research using the zebrafish.

The three-day conference is part of an ongoing partnership between GSCC and UAB, and starts Wednesday. Appearing will be professionals from Boston Children's Hospital, M.D. Anderson, and St. Jude's Children's Research Hospital.

Hugh Hammer, program manager for Gadsden State's Aquaculture program, said the event has been in the planning for about three months. Working with Hammer is Samuel Cartner, director of the UAB Animal Resource Program, and Susan Farmer, a senior veterinarian at UAB.

The zebrafish, a tropical fish native to Southeast Asia, is now being used more than rats or monkeys for medical research, Hammer said. Doctors and researchers are using them to study everything from obesity to hypertension and cancer.

Zebrafish are less expensive to care for than traditional medical research animals, don't demand as much space, supplies or equipment, and the zebrafish genome has been sequenced. Zebrafish eggs grow outside the body and can be manipulated, and a single female can reproduce every two days, with 50 to 100 eggs per spawn.

The conference will deal with two issues, Hammer said. It will allow professionals in the Zebrafish field to compare notes, but it will also offer a crash course in how to raise the fish.

"The sessions will train people who don't know anything about it," Hammer said. "It will outline a lot of the basics, and they will be able to take an online course that will deal with other concepts."